Job seekers are assigned to Treatment Group A, Treatment Group B, or the control group. Treatment Grop A provides job-seekers with access to a website and smartphone app that provides tailored information about occupations providing relatively high wages and strong employment growth, along with nudges to search and apply for jobs. Treatment Group B receives access to a website and smartphone app that provides non-tailored information about occupations, along with nudges to search and apply for jobs. The control group receives general information.

Intervention Start Date

2019-07-01

Intervention End Date

2019-10-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The four key outcome variables are: i) earnings information bias (i.e. the bias in beliefs about how much different occupations pay)
ii) whether or not individuals switch two-digit occupation categories
iii) weekly earnings 12 weeks after filling out the baseline survey and starting the intervention
iv) days nonemployed within first 12 weeks after filling out the baseline survey and starting the intervention

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

i) will be measured based on surveys asking people to rank 6 randomly chosen occupations form 1-6, with 1 offering the lowest wages for the individual and 6 offering the highest. We will answer this both before and 12 weeks after the information intervention. We will measure information quality as the within person correlation of the responded occupation ranking with the true occupation ranking.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

i) Number of jobs-applied for per week
ii) Number of jobs-applied for in new occupations (i.e. different than previous occupation) per week

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design

Job-seekers coming into four Michigan one-stop job centers will fill out an intake survey the first time they come in, as part of the normal process of beginning to receive services at the one-stop job center. Individuals completing this intake survey will be asked if they want to participate in a research study about job-search tools. If they provide their informed consent, they will be invited to go to the app/website to fill out a baseline survey on their labor market beliefs. After completing this baseline survey, job-seekers will be randomly assigned to be offered website and app Treatment A, Treatment B, or the control treatment, all described in more detail above.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization will be done in the job-search app/website by computer. Individuals are randomized individually when they fill out the baseline survey on the job-search app/website.

Randomization Unit

Individual job-seeker randomization into Treatment A, treatment group B, and the control group.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

i) earnings information bias: unit is correlation, baseline mean is unknown, so we can only say that we estimate that the minimum detectable effect size will be .17 standard deviations
ii) whether or not individuals switch two-digit occupation categories: unit is share switching two digit occupations, the minimum detectable effect size will be .08 percentage points, or .15 standard deviations, which is 33% of the expected baseline mean.
iii) weekly earnings 12 weeks after filling out the baseline survey and starting the intervention: the minimum detectable effect size is $61 per week, which is .12 standard deviations and 11% of the baseline mean
iv) days nonemployed within first 12 weeks after filling out the baseline survey and starting the intervention: the minimum detectable effect size will be 2.4 days nonemployed within the first 12 weeks of filling out the baseline survey, which is .12 standard deviations or 4.7% of the baseline mean.